Even More on Wine - 'Separation' of Non-Jew From Jews in Making of Wine! (Their Own Words!) ..
Sir Reginald Percival McTavish
On Sat, 31 Jan 1998 02:57:27 GMT, doc_t...@nonspam.bigfoot.com (Doc
Tavish) wrote:
.............................................................................................................................
All new!
http://webwinery.com/Hagafen/Kosher.html
HAGAFEN KOSHER WINES
Exactly what makes a wine kosher? Kosher grapes know no national
boundaries; in fact, grapes from anywhere in the world can be used for
kosher wines. The kosher certification is given for how a wine is made
and how it is handled. A winery making kosher wines needs to be
pristine clean, only Sabbath-observing Jews are permitted to touch the
wine and equipment,........
[Compare: "...only Sabbath-observing Jews are permitted to touch the
wine and equipment..." to all that follows! Tavish comment.]
............................................................................................................
http://www.pswtech.com/~stevenw/jewish/kosher/l2.nonmeat_regulation.html
>Steven Weintraub's Kashrut - Theory, Law and Practice Class Outline
>and Notes:
>
>[ ... ]
>
>III. Law is regulation of meat, but...
>
>Kashrut laws only apply to items considered food. The ability to eat
>non-food items because kosher laws do not apply to them might seem
>crazy, but it should be pointed out that many of our additives are
>derived from sources which we do not consider food. The Talmud comes
>up with many criteria on what is a food. One of the first line tests
>is whether a dog would eat it. If a dog would not eat it is not
>considered a food (Those of us who own dogs and see what they will eat
>recognize this as a good minimum test.)
>
>As stated in the last lesson, kashrut is the regulation of eating
>meat. Almost all kashrut laws put restrictions on eating meat in one
>form or another. Remembering this might help in practice of certain
>laws. I can only think of four rules that apply to non-meat products,
>all of which are rabbinic in origin.
>
>1.Grapes (particularly grape juice products) - Because of the long
>standing practice to grow grapes (particularly wine) for idolatry, the
>Rabbis prohibited the eating of grape and grape products if they were
>grown by an unsupervised non-Jew. Grape juice must not be in the
>possession of a non-Jew unsupervised unless it is made unfit for
>idolatry by boiling (Thus most kosher wine is quick boiled to allow
>non-Jewish middle-men to handle it).
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Compare the last paragraph above to what B'nai B'rith has published in
>the past:
>
>From B'nai B'rith (Mother of ADL):
http://bnaibrith.org/ijm/articles/wine/index.html
>Vineyard Vanguard:
>
>The new taste of a well-aged tradition
>
>By Joseph Berkofsky
>
>[ ... ] (Excerpt used for "educational" purposes]
>
>Like all other kosher food or drink, kosher wine cannot contain any
>unkosher animal or fish products; to be kosher for Passover, it must
>also not come in contact with any leavened grains.
>
>But the law regarding wine extracts another, more pressing, demand: It
>cannot be handled by non-Jews.
>
>
>The roots of this law reach back to the ancient Land of Israel where,
>to prevent Jews from drinking wines used in idol worship, Jewish law
>forbade Jews to touch wine that had been moved in an open vessel by
>non-Jews, since it was likely used as a wave offering. The rabbis
>later went further in battling assimilation, declaring any wine
>handled by a non-Jew unfit to drink.
>
>Today, in order to ensure that a wine meets all the kashrut
>requirements, the entire winemaking process from grape-crushing to
>bottling is overseen by trained, Sabbath-observant Jews, or
>mashgichim, who handle all flow of the wine. And, as Ben Welton, a
>mashgiach for St. Supéry and others, can attest, this kind of kosher
>supervision can mean as much toil as Torah.
>
>With help from nearby non-Jewish winery workers, mashgichim operate
>cranes to unload the grapes from trucks after the fall harvest. They
>run the crushers which break the grapes, and pipe the crushed grapes
>and juice into steel tanks. And they oversee the rest of the process
>from fermentation, when yeast converts the grape's sugar into alcohol,
>to filtering the wine and moving it into oak barrels to be aged.
>
>At times, says Welton, this is dizzying work - literally. Not too long
>ago, he recalls, he had to dig heavy heaps of stems from a huge
>fermentation tank at St. Supéry - while wearing a lifeline to show
>that he was not inhaling too much alcohol vapor.
>
>Peak season for mashgichim like Welton is between August and January,
>when most of the winemaking occurs. And, although a mashgiach need not
>be on premises other than when the wine is being moved through the
>process, mashgichim will occassionally return to inspect the wine as
>it ages to ensure that it has not been touched by non-Jews.
>
>But those wineries that wish to involve non-Jews in the process can
>tap into a Talmudic ruling that makes this possible.
>
>Rabbinic authorities decreed that wine, even if touched by non-Jews,
>was fit for Jewish use so long as it was mevushal, or cooked. The idea
>was, in part, that cooked wine is far less palatable and no one would
>want to use it.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>For further comparison please consider:
http://www.mcs.net/~kollel/www/halacha/fax210.html
>HALACHA ON - LINE
>
>In Memory of Rabbi Dov Ber Rosenblum z''l
>a dedicated Torah scholar whose greatest love was the study and
>clarification of Halacha
>
>Food Preparations, Part One vol.2 no.10
>
>In an effort to limit social mingling with our gentile neighbors and
>the intermarriage which might result, our sages prohibited eating food
>cooked by gentiles, even if all ingredients are kosher and the food is
>cooked in a kosher vessel while under the watchful eye of a Jewish
>supervisor.
>
>Such food is referred to in Hebrew as bishul nochri or bishul akum. It
>is particularly important to bear this isuue in mind if one has a
>non-Jewish housekeeper or attendent [slave from the nations!] who
>takes part in household food preparation.
>
>When establishing this prohibition, the sages excluded foods which
>would have been fully edible prior to the cooking process. Therefore,
>pasteurization of milk and juice, though typically done by non-Jews,
>presents no bishul nochri problem. Some authorities use this exclusion
>as the justification for the common practice to drink coffee or tea
>cooked by a gentile. These drinks can be viewed as basically being
>flavored water. As water is drinkable prior to any cooking, water and
>by extension coffee and tea, are exempted from this prohibition. Other
>examples within this category would be most fruit and those vegetables
>which could be eaten raw.
>
>Another category excluded from this prohibition is that of foods that
>are not dignified enough to be served on shulchan melachim - literally
>the table of kings or practically, as a dish at a fancy dinner.
>Accordingly, if for example, a bowl of oatmeal was cooked by a
>non-Jewish housekeeper, the bishul nochri prohibition does not apply.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>A Community Service of Kollel Toras Chesed of Skokie
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>kol...@mcs.com Kollel Toras Chesed Voice (708) 674-7959 3732 W.
>Dempster Fax (708) 674-4023 Skokie, IL 60076 BBS (708) 674-4023 Last
>Revision: August 22, 1995
>
>Halacha Online:
http://www.mcs.net/~kollel/www/halacha/halacha.html
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.mcs.net/~kollel/www/halacha/fax211.html
>HALACHA ON - LINE
>
>In Memory of Rabbi Dov Ber Rosenblum z''l
>
>a dedicated Torah scholar whose greatest love was the study and
>clarification of Halacha
>
>Food Production part two vol.2 no.11
>
>In our last issue we introduced the laws of bishul nochri .
>
>[Review: Food Preparations, Part One vol.2 no.10 In an effort to
>limit social mingling with our gentile neighbors and the intermarriage
>which might result, our sages prohibited eating food cooked by
>gentiles, even if all ingredients are kosher and the food is cooked in
>a kosher vessel while under the watchful eye of a Jewish supervisor.
>Such food is referred to in Hebrew as bishul nochri or bishul akum.]
>
>We received certain questions regarding the common practice of kosher
>caterers and commercial food producers. The following additional
>guidelines provide significant insight into the halachic basis for
>food preperation involving significant amounts of cooking by nochrim .
>
>
>The prohibition of bishul nochri applies only if the entire cooking
>process is done by the nochri . If a Jew places the food on the fire
>or, according to the Ashkenazic view, if he ignites or increases the
>fire, no bishul nochri problem can develop. Even if the cooking
>process was initiated by a nochri , as long as it was substantially
>completed by a Jew (e.g. the pot was removed from the fire before the
>food can be considered cooked and then returned to the fire by a Jew)
>the bishul nochri prohibition will generally not be present. In the
>latter case other factors must be determined and halachic guidance is
>suggested.
>
>In keeping with this rule, if the food was previously cooked by a Jew
>and is merely being reheated by the nochri , no problem arises.
>
>In summary, the bishul nochri prohibition applies only if all of the
>following conditions exist :
>
>1.the food was not fit to be eaten prior to the cooking
>2.the food is fit to be served as a dish at a formal meal
>3.the food was cooked entirely by a nochri (Gentile)
>
>In a situation in which bishul nochri did occur, the vessels in which
>the food was cooked are regarded as having non-kosher absorptions. It
>is therefore necessary to kasher them prior to further use. However,
>since the prohibition involved is only of Rabbinic origin, some
>leniencies do apply. If the utensil in question is for some halachic
>or practical reason incapable of undergoing a typical absorption
>removal process, Rabbinic guidance may yield allowance to use it
>without the conventional kashering.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~